They say that marriage is a wonderful institution as long as you do not mind spending your whole life being institutionalized. However, for all of the joking around that people do about marriage, there is nothing in this world that should be taken more seriously. God designed marriage as a way to form solid families, and it is no empty platitude to say that the family truly is the foundation of our society. Unfortunately, many Americans have lost sight of what marriage is truly about.
If you look at the message being pushed by the entertainment media, you would think that marriage is all about sexual desire. Characters on television do not care about starting a family together and making a lifetime commitment when they get married. They only care about their desire for the other person. In truth, the government could not care less about things like that. The reason our government is in the business of recognizing marriage is because individual marriages really do have a tangible impact on our society as a whole.
A lot of the ills we see in America today can be traced to the fall of the traditional family. When no-fault divorce came on the scene in the 1970s, it was the first step on this dangerous downward slope. Proponents of it claimed that no-fault divorce would allow people to end their marriage without the government getting involved unnecessarily. The truth was much more bleak. As Phyllis Schlafly wrote, “Under no-fault divorce, equality is the rule: Either spouse can terminate a marriage without the other spouse’s consent and without any fault committed by the cast-off spouse.” What Phyllis is saying is that it opened the door for men to divorce their wives, leave their children, and have no responsibility for their actions.
The American people have a vested interest in promoting the traditional family. As the most powerful economic engine in our society and the primary way in which values are instilled in the next generation, how we treat families has consequences for us all. Don’t be intimidated by the liberals who say marriage does not matter.
